In many environments and situations, the handling of food and beverages dispensed on an individual basis, becomes difficult and cumbersome. For example, in the environment such as a sporting or entertainment venue, food and beverages are dispensed via counters or vendors, on an individual basis. If a patron purchases food or beverages from the counter for example, they then must somehow carry the purchased items back to their seat, and handling of the items can be difficult. This is particularly true where the patron may buy multiple drinks and/or food items for their group.
Many other situations are similar, where a person gets drinks and/or food and then must carry the items back to a seat or the like for consumption. Such situations may include movie theaters, buffets, happy hours, or many other activities or environments, where a person has to carry food and beverages that are dispensed on an individual basis. Further, spillage of beverages from hand carried cups is a well known problem to customers of carry out or fast food restaurants. Also, handling multiple drinks is problematic. For such situations, there are drink carriers that are used, being the paper pulp type trays with multiple receptacles in which drinks can be frictionally engaged. Such trays as currently available for supporting and transporting drinking cups include receptacles sized to fit the bottom of a particular size cup. As the receptacles are typically formed in one size, this has led the fast food restaurants to configure the cups for different sizes of drinks to have the same bottom configuration, thereby allowing them to fit in the tray receptacle. These known carriers provide only limited lateral support for cups being carried or otherwise transported, increasing the chance that taller cups can be tipped and spilled while carrying. Further, such carriers are bulky and not conveniently configured to carry additional items, such as food items, making storage and handling of the tray more difficult. These particular types of tray devices are also difficult to carry, and usually require both hands of the user, preventing the user from using their hands to carry other things or perform tasks such as opening doors, handing a ticket to a person, or distributing food to another person.
Additionally, these types of carriers are unattractive, bulky, nested tightly together and therefore difficult to handle, expensive to ship and space-consuming to store at a site for use, taking up significant storage space due to their configuration. Other types of carriers may be made to assemble for use, making them inconvenient and difficult to handle.
Although helpful, such devices are still problematic if multiple drinks and food items are purchased, and are not convenient to carry or handle, ship or store for use.
Various other efforts have been made to facilitate the transportation of multiple beverage cups from a point of purchase to a point of use. Such efforts have generally not been accepted by consumers, due to various deficiencies, and there thus is a need for an improved device for handling beverages and food items that are dispensed on an individual basis.
Another problem inherent in existing container carriers is that they may not support filled cups in a stable manner. Known carriers when in use, may not allow for stable carrying as they are rigid, and therefore require the user to maintain the carrier in a level position to avoid spillage of the cup contents. Further, such carriers may be unstable if they are not filled with the maximum number of cups for which they are designed.
Notwithstanding the state of the art as described herein, there is a need for further improvements in beverage and food carriers, as well as dispensing systems for such carriers.